About

The Borscht Film Festival (est. 2004 by New World School of the Arts high school students) is a quasi-yearly event held at iconic Miami venues that commissions, produces, and showcases movies created by emerging regional filmmakers telling Miami stories that go beyond the city’s insipid exterior.

Borscht Corp is an open source collaborative dedicated to telling Miami stories. Through commission grants, film production, web experiments, tendzmedia projects, myth-making and The Borscht Film Festival, we redefine the perception of Miami- empowering locals to tell their stories and offering a global platform to share them.

Founded by members of the generation that came of age with the infant metropolis itself, Borscht hopes to articulate the voices of the New Miami and its idiosyncratic culture.

Using a combination of awards, grants, sponsorships, ticket revenue, in-kind and tax-deductible donations, we green-light between six and thirty projects quasi-annually, then throw a five day event that is equal parts film festival, performance art, social experiment, gonzo cultural summit, and party to showcase them.

Many of the same people who make the films design the festival around them, reimagining the organization and events from the ground up with each iteration.

Borscht is proud to be supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to continue “forging the cinematic identity of Miami both locally and globally,” in its mission to “redefine Miami in cinema and vice-versa.” Borscht is also is made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.

Events

Wed17

Miami Filmmakers Collective ScreeningShirley’s Cinema8:30 PM

Wednesday, December 17th

What do a 96 year old farmer, a transgender youth and a psychic have a in common?
Some MFC!
Borscht Film Festival invites you to come to see works-in-progress by members of the Miami Filmmakers Collective (MFC) and while you are there, win a papaya, make music by touching someone's body and get a long-distance psychic reading via radio waves.

Short Film Program // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Jose El Rey was a fictional recording artist active from roughly 2006 to 2009. Created and performed by Jose Flores in a series of live shows, albums, and web videos, Jose El Rey was a parody of Latin American machismo who became legendary for his drug-and-croquetta fueled concerts at the now-defunct PS14 and Vagabond spaces as well as befuddling Miami at large with impromptu performances on Calle Ocho and unsuspecting Cuban restaurants. He was also among the most notable early articulations of a uniquely Miami "spicster" culture: first generation Americans exploring their relation to their heritage through an ironically comic lens. While El Rey was murdered in 2009, his legacy lives on through his influence on the next generation of Miami creators. This program will be a screening of his works, footage from his live shows, and a conversation with Jose Flores himself as well as several surprise guests.

Special Presentation // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Secret Celluloid Society presents a screening of a mystery movie from Miami's cinematic past, Phillip Michael Thomas's straight-to-VHS followup to Miami Vice, released in 1993. Hosted by Billy Corben, founder of Rakontur Films and director of the Cocaine Cowboys series and ESPN's The U.

Feature Film Screening // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Cruise in the fearsome Borscht Armada to have dinner in one of the last remaining stilt houses in the middle of Biscayne Bay. Keynote speech by a hologram of DJ Khaled.

Event // by invitation only

Spaceship MiamiMiami Museum of Science Planetarium
7 PM

Thursday, December 18th

A literary, cinematic, and musical celebration of Miami culture culminating in the launch of the El Viajero satellite project, the first extra-planetary mission from Borscht's Miami Aeronautics and Space Administration (MASA) division. This satellite will carry 305GB of Miami culture out of the solar system on a special hard drive and is expected to last approximately 2 billion years. Also: premieres of new short films by Adan Jodorowsky and others, interactive projections by Phenomenal Radness, rare planetarium light shows, and a laser light show scored live by John Hancock III (formerly of ANR). Free beer courtesy of Becks!
Doors open at 7, films start at 8:30, performances start at 10.

Event // Short Film Program // Event is free with purchase of Borscht 9 ticket

The Miami premiere and official Criterion Collection 3-disk Blu-Ray release of Hector.LA by famous Hollywood director and local con-artist Nick Corirossi. Watch the film Roger Ebert called "flat-out the greatest movie ever made," with the director present. He says he will berate you if you try to leave early or shift in your seat too much. Nick Pinkerton, a fancy film writer who is still alive, will conduct a thorough Q and A.

Feature Film Screening // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Legally we cannot publish what will be played at this screening, but we can promise this series of short films commissioned and ultimately rejected by one of the biggest pop groups in the world have never been seen before, and will never be seen again.

Short Film Program // Admission will only be granted with knowledge of password

Secret Celluloid Society presents a screening of a mystery movie from Miami's cinematic past about violent multi-ethnic gangs on the streets of Miami and the delightful electro music they make, released in 1986. Hosted by Billy Corben, founder of Rakontur Films and director of the Cocaine Cowboys series and ESPN's The U.

Feature Film Screening // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Prowess with a sharp deadly object is one of, if not the most important skill a filmmaker must have. Join us for a screening of the short doc Papa Machete by director Jonathan David Kane and Third Horizon Media followed by master class in the ancient, dying art of tire machèt, better known as Haitian machete fencing, taught by Michael Dylan Rogers, one of the subjects of the film. Stick around for tasty traditional Haitian lunch!

Special Presentation // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Andrew Gerber used to be a fancy intellectual property attorney working for The Man. Now armed with their illuminati secrets, he has his own firm where he helps artists like Jillian Mayer and Bleeding Palm explore the ever-shifting landscape of fair use as well as representing artists like Ahol Sniffs Glue and Celia Rowlson-Hall on intellectual property litigation matters. In this panel he will be joined by fellow attorneys Jordan Fletcher (his colleague at his firm Kurshinsky Gerber PLLC) and Divya Jayachandran (IP counsel at NBCUniversal) to give a brief overview of IP law, fair use, copyright infringement, DMCA, trademark dilution, and how artists and filmmakers can avoid infringement and protect themselves from being infringed upon. They'll all be available for drinks and questions at Gramps immediately afterwards.

Special Presentation // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Bring your bicycle or hop on a complimentary Citibike as we ride to various locations for drink specials and secret screenings, making our way from Gramps to Borscht events at Museum Park, Intercontinental Hotel, and the YoungArts Campus. Sponsored by Dickies, free beer provided by Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Join us in the lobby and exterior of the Intercontinental Hotel as we unveil new installations of video and interactive art by Jillian Mayer, Coral Morphologic, Ahol Sniffs Glue, Vince Mckelvie, and more- culminating in the premiere of a 12-story tall 8-bit animation. Free cocktail for bikers!

A special outdoor screening of The Greatest Miami Story Ever Told, the classic 1994 film beloved by Caucasians all over the world, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Bring your pets, we will have treats for them! In collaboration with Bookleggers Miami and the University of Wynwood, we will announce plans to erect a life-sized bronze statue of the film's eponymous hero.

Walt Disney dreamt of Disney World. Borscht has THE MULTIVERSE, our DIY sketch of a theme park devoted to some of the infinite realities Miami contains. Enjoy food, games, and rides as you explore five different areas of THE MULTIVERSE theme park: a psychedelic town square inspired by Adventures of Christopher Bosh in the Multiverse!, a virtual reality world, and a weird carnival, each designed by local filmmakers, as well as an emotional arcade and an outdoor cinema playing three programs of films:

7:30 PM YoungArts Alumni Showcase: short films by National YoungArts Foundation alumni. The National YoungArts Foundation identifies and supports the next generation of artists in the visual, literary, design and performing arts; assists them at critical junctures in their educational and professional development; and raises appreciation for the arts in American society.

8:30 PM Borscht 0: Screening of short films created and curated by Miami high school students, far more interesting and relevant than anything else you will see at this festival. We are old, they are young. The know things we do not. Potentially the beginning of a new cycle of Borscht.

10 PM Bosh Film Festival: The unofficial premiere of Adventures of Christopher Bosh in the Multiverse! Part 2 by Bleeding Palm, wherein Lebron's real reason for leaving Miami will be revealed. Preceded by documentaries about Coral Morphologic and Raider Klan.

Event // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $10 suggested donation

Court 13 brings you The Weekly Revue, New Orleans' finest omni-sensual showcase, featuring a variety of soul-tainting entertainments and informations. Hosted by Toby Lou the Nasty One, your personal Rabbi. A show you've never seen before; we guarantee it.

Special Presentation // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Special preview of the first three episodes of the Borscht episodic series No Seasons, a surreality show exploring Miami's strange underworld, starring Julian Yuri Rodriguez, premiering next year on MTV (Other). Watch outdoors at Gramps from an above-ground pool.

Long before there was any artistic film community or support infrastructure to speak of in Miami, there was Michael Arcos. Often working completely by himself since the mid-90's, Michael has steadily built a body of work that defies categorization, exploring small punk subcultures in suburbs such as Cutler Ridge and Westchester and inspiring many prominent local artists along the way. This screening will be a brief overview of his work culminating in the premiere of his new film and interactive installation Dream Throat at a nearby seedy motel (transportation provided).

Short Film Program // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Regional filmmakers Nandan Rao (Corvallis) and Zach Weintraub (Olympia) present a program of work representative of the interests, ethos, means of production and distribution from the Pacific Northwest, followed by a zine making session.

Short Film Program // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Regional filmmaker Adam Piron (Arizona) presents a program of work representative of the interests, ethos, means of production and distribution of filmmakers from Native American & Indigenous communities.

Short Film Program // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Our flagship event. Screening of short films specifically commissioned for this festival made in/for/about Miami by local and guest filmmakers. Arrive early for concerts on the Arsht Plaza as well as a body building exhibition inside. Doors open at 7:30, bodybuilding competition begins at 8, films begin at 8:30.

Short Film Program // $25 // $15 for students with ID // Empty seats will be given away on a first-come first-served basis starting at 8:15 PM

Unofficial preview screening of a working cut of Ian Clark’s new feature film, an experimental narrative feature about wilderness, ecology, and extraterrestrial visitation. There will be a UFO related activity conducted by the director after the screening. Preceeded by Conditioner short film by Viking Funeral.

Feature Film Screening // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Unofficial preview of a working cut of Celia Rowlson-Hall’s first feature film. MA is a modern day silent film. It is the story of a virgin mother on a pilgrimage to Las Vegas to give birth to our savior. After the screening the director will conduct a silent Q and A. Preceeded by They and The Spot short student film by Kayla Delacerda.

Feature Film Screening // Free with the purchase of a Borscht 9 ticket or $5 suggested donation

Mansion Nightclub used to be a grand movie house, and for one night we restore that spirit with the premiere of the ongoing crowdsourced remake of Brian de Palma’s Scarface. Submit your own version of a scene at scarfaceredux.com by December 8th to be part of this iteration.

Special Presentation // Feature Film Screening // Free if you contributed a clip to the film or $10 suggested donation

Short Commissions

Diamond Princess En Plein Airedir. Jacolby Satterwhite and Trina
In the most recent installment in Jacolby Satterwhite’s Reifying Desire video series (on view in the 2014 Whitney Biennial) the artist continues his exploration of 3-D animation and digital space as a utopian realm to explore memory and personal history. Scored by Patricia Satterwhite's drawings and Miami rapper Trina's iconic Diamond Princess album, the piece uses the hyperbolic language and imagery from both sources to construct a hedonistic, performative and queer utopic narrative.
-Screening at Borscht 9.

Who is Lou Gehrig?dir. Gil Green
A film mixing illusion and reality, telling the story of local ALS diagnosed sports coach Jeff Fogel.
-Screening at Borscht 9.

Rules by Which a Great Empire May Reduced to a Small Onedir. Ray Tintori
Saboteurs and struggling artists Frank O’Hara and Louise Brooks crash their plane in an unmapped part of the wilderness off the coast of Florida and discover a massive, multi-tiered universe filled with fiefdoms, colonists and entire populations that have had their history books rewritten and their water supply tainted with memory erasing chemicals. As they start to dismantle the society from the inside, O’Hara and Louise confront the gulf between them.
-Screening at Borscht 9.

Biscayne Worlddir. Ahol Sniffs Glue, Michael Arcos, and Ellen Hertzler
An animation based on the insane everyday interactions on Biscayne Boulevard, as seen through the ubiquitous, iconic graffiti eyeballs of street artist Ahol Sniffs Glue.
-Screening at Borscht 9.WATCH TRAILER

Swimming in Your Skin Againdir. Terence Nance
A film about motherhood, banality, Miami, the water, the divine feminine, and how to sing in church in a way that calls forth your own adulthood.
-Screening at Borscht 9.

Dolfundir. Sebastian Silva
What begins as a love story becomes an existential crisis when filmmaker Sebastian Silva flies to Miami to fulfill his lifelong dream of swimming with a dolphin.
-Screening at Borscht 9.

Yearbookdir. Bernardo Britto
A man is hired to compile the definitive history of human existence before the planet blows up.
-Screening at Borscht 9.WATCH TRAILER

Papa Machetedir. Jonathan David Kane
Haitian farmer Alfred Avril is one of the last remaining masters of tire machèt, the mysterious martial art created by Haitian slaves to defeat Napoleon’s armies. Teaching about the practical and spiritual value of the machete — which is both a weapon and a farmer’s key to survival — Avril provides a bridge between his country’s traditional past and its troubled present.
-Screening at Borscht 9 and Papa Machete Short Film Screening and Machete Fencing Master Class

Adventures of Christopher Bosh in the Multiverse! (Part 2)dir. Christina Felisgrau and Ronnie Rivera
Disgraced space prince Christopher Bosh and Barfar the Mystic Wolfman return to battle evil forces in the epic conclusion of their journey.
-Screening at Borscht 9 and THE MULTIVERSE.WATCH TRAILER

LAKE MAHARdir. Julian Yuri Rodriguez
The King Arthur legend is adapted to become a nightmare of caucasian emasculation on Flagler Street.
-Screening at Borscht 9.WATCH TRAILER

Night Sirensdir. Andres Meza-Valdes, Diego Meza-Valdes, and Eric Mainade
An illegal migrant worker decides it’s time to move on from picking crops and find a better job. Little does she know insidious supernatural forces have a different plan for her.
-Screening at Borscht 9.WATCH TRAILER

Cool as Ice 2dir.Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva
The sequel to the classic 1991 film Cool as Ice starring a pirated Vanilla Ice.
-Screening at Borscht 9.WATCH TRAILER

Stripper Warsdir. Giancarlo Loffredo
Kayoz is the stage name of one of the Flying Angels, an elite group of exotic dancers who perform at King of Diamonds Gentleman’s Club in Miami. Stripper Wars takes us on a sensory journey through her internal life.
-Screening at Borscht 9.WATCH TRAILER

El Sol Como un Gran Animal Oscurodir. Christina Felisgrau and Ronnie Rivera
A computer and a woman fall in love only to be torn apart because of their inappropriate feelings for each other.
-Screening at Borscht 9.

Pink Sidewalksdir. Monica Peña and Manny Mangos
An experimental short film using documentary footage, fast cutting, and freestyle narration to distort the popular imagination about South Beach, making the familiar strange.
-Screening at Borscht 9.

All Your Favorite Showsdir. Danny Madden
Shows and commercials and videos and more shows. That's all this kid sees and that's all he cares to see.
-Screening at Borscht 9.

Ham Headsdir. Efren Hernandez
Barry and Larry are the world's oldest conjoined twins. Retired from performing, they live out the rest of their life with their brother's family.
-Screening at Spaceship Miami.

A Summer Homedir. Brian Deutzman
A guest of a decaying summer resort becomes dangerously obsessed with its violent history.
-Screening at Spaceship Miami.

The Coral Reef Are Dreaming Againdir. Lucas Leyva and Coral Morphologic
Gregor and Harold, two corals living in the underwater remains of Miami, share their dreams with each other.
-Screening at Spaceship Miami.

Raider Klan Documentarydir. Brian Deutzman
Interviews and behind the scenes footage of Miami underground rap collective Raider Klan lead to a broader discussion of the social phenomena that inspire them to create.
-Screening at THE MULTIVERSE.

Nekamadir. Cristine Brache and Piotr Bockowski
Nekama is a virtual world, an infectious model of trans-individual identity and proliferates as such, embodied by self-replicating twin sisters in an impossible archipelago of wasted jungle that is massively undergrown by fungi. To enter, one must take on the same face of the twin; to play, one must become many.
-Screening at THE MULTIVERSE.

They and The Spotdir. Kayla Delacerda
A couple of young artists retreat to another world.
-Screening before the feature MA.

Conditionerdir. Viking Funeral
A series of vignettes that explore themes such as revenge, witchcraft, beauty/ugliness and repetition through absurdist humor and sound by Miami-based sound collaborative Viking Funeral.
-Screening before the feature A Morning Light.

Alterationsdir. Juan Carlos Zaldivar
Two days in the life of a 71-year-old widow, who is secretly dying and has decided to live life fully for the first time and an androgynous twenty-something-year-old, who is about to transition into a woman.
-Screening at Miami Filmmakers Collective Showcase.

Features

MAdir. Celia Rowlson-Hall
A modern day silent film. It is the story of a virgin mother on a pilgrimage to Las Vegas to give birth to our savior.
-Screening at MA.

A Morning Lightdir. Ian Clark
Off duty from his job with the U.S. Forest Service, Zach takes up a house sitting gig for his aunt and uncle. Spending time in a remote landscape, he reconnects with his ex-girlfriend Ellyn, working playfully to rekindle their old bond. Gradually, the two begin to experience a series of strange events and unexplainable phenomena.
-Screening at A Morning Light.

Coral Citydir. John McSwain
A portrait of Miami's Coral Morphologic, an artist/scientist duo who breed and document rare hybrids of Floridian coral while fighting to save local reefs from extermination.
-Screening at THE MULTIVERSE.

STREET MELODIES ETERNAL (CAPE TOWN IN 5 PERIODS)dir. Sean Metelerkamp
A chaotic construction of Cape Town gives us a raw reality check of the current state of mind and movement of the city.
-Screening at Spaceship Miami.

La Mallette Noire (The Black Case)dir. Caroline Monnet and Daniel Watchorn
In 1930, 8 year-old Elizabeth and her infant cousin are taken from their family and quarantined in a Canadian residential school infirmary due to a tuberculosis scare.
-Screening at Regional Film Showcase: Native American & Indigenous Communities

$500 of Partydir. Nandan Rao
Nandan offers a $500 grant via craigslist to throw a party of any kind. The only requirement is that the applicants must submit a video outlining their vision.
-Screening at Regional Film Showcase: Weird NorthWest

defaCEMANDEFAMCDAEFGACMEmfamdir. David Hoekje
An experimental found footage Venn diagram about the internal and the external; the organic and the human-made.
-Screening at Regional Film Showcase: Weird NorthWest

THE DIFFERENT MEANINGS OF: Pretend, Money, and Elf's!dir. Reid Urban
"I paid someone on craigslist $8 for 5 min, to pretend to be surprised by an elf!"
-Screening at Regional Film Showcase: Weird NorthWest

THE DIFFERENT MEANINGS OF: Facts, Truth, Life, Money and Comedy.dir. Reid Urban
"Paid a stranger from craigslist to read the numbers of my hands wrong. I paid them 10$"
-Screening at Regional Film Showcase: Weird NorthWest